An <i>Aeromonas</i> variant that produces aerolysin promotes susceptibility to ulcerative colitis
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a severe inflammatory bowel disease affecting millions of people worldwide, but the factors driving the condition are poorly understood. In tissue samples from individuals with UC, we found that macrophages were depleted from areas of the colon that did not yet exhibit overt epithelial inflammation. We hypothesized that toxins produced by bacteria could impair macrophages and that this could promote wider inflammation. We isolated a variant of <i>Aeromonas</i> genus from stool samples from UC patients, which we termed macrophage-toxic bacteria (MTB), because aerolysin secreted by MTB caused macrophage death. MTB colonized mice under pathogenic conditions and triggered colitis. Antibodies against aerolysin alleviated colitis induced by <i>Aeromonas</i> in mice. In a cohort, UC patients more frequently tested positive for <i>Aeromonas</i> than healthy controls did.
Authors
- Hong Xin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9709-9267)
- Tiantian Qiu
- Zhihui Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2678-9494)
- Min‐Sheng Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3256-6861)
- Huaqun Chen
- Fangyu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7129-8655)
- Lutao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1090-3417)
- Yuwei Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6110-9013)
- Jianfeng Gong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8518-6796)
- Dong Hang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6944-0459)
- Junhao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2274-8434)
- Wei He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3137-8420)
- Hui Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4854-6187)
- Zhenji Gan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5940-207X)
- Caiping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9599-4623)
- Feng Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7110-3582)
- Lei Fang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2582-4845)
- Zhuoxin Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8209-3455)
- Xuena Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3449-3320)
- Ye Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0877-1538)
- Han Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9282-2105)
- Hairong Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-7254)
- Pengpeng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1079-8516)
- Xia Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1672-544X)
- Xin Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3304-8943)
- Zhifeng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2935-0883)
- Yang Liao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1341-0493)
- Zexu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4791-7698)
- Kehui Qiu
- Fan Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4803-6005)
- Ji Xuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7402-4158)
- N. Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1775-2511)
- Xinqi Shan
- Jian Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4372-2826)
Institutions
- Nanjing Normal University (CN)
- China Pharmaceutical University (CN)
- Xuzhou Medical College (CN)
- Yunnan University (CN)
- Soochow University (CN)
- Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (CN)
- Nanjing Municipal Center for Disease Control And Prevention (CN)
- Jiangsu Cancer Hospital (CN)
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (CN)
- Xijing Hospital (CN)
- Center for Life Sciences (CN)
- Jinling Institute of Technology (CN)
- Nanjing Medical University (CN)
- Air Force Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-11-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adz4712
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.59